On 2012-07-07 22:50, Bora Boris wrote:Inspired by this GatorRob post where he took a Derby Daiquiri glass back to the Mai-Kai for a cocktail and glass reunion, I took a Pearl Diver glass to the Tiki-Ti and I 'd say the glass made it taste a little better.

Good idea So....what does the NEW new paint job look like now? Was it a total re-paint, old style?

Can anyone recommend a good, casual restaurant close to Tiki Ti? It will be my first time there and I want to stop in before a Clippers game. It'll be my first time going to Staples Center too. A cocktail at Trader Vic's is the plan for after the game.
Thank you in advance.
_________________-Lori

Hi Lori. You can't go wrong with El Chavo right next door for rum absorbing Mexican food. Also about a half mile West down Hollywood Blvd is an Umami Burger for gourmet burgers. If you want something "taco stand fast" then I like Yucca's on Hollywood Bvd just East of Vermont.

Remember Tiki-Ti is closed Sun-Tue.

And seek Rasta Jim out (he will be obvious) for the grand Tiki-Ti tour.

Thanks John O, thankfully I'm going this Saturday. I had thought about going to Umami Burger, but we might go to El Chavo since I'm still trying to find good and spicy Mexican food in LA. The Tex-Mex I grew up with is much spicier and more flavorful than what I've eaten out here. It looks wonderfully kitschy from looking at their website.

I am spoiled by great Mexican food here in San Deigo, but El Chavo is good. My brother moved right there in Hollywood a few years back and hasn't found a comparable mexican resturant yet. Umami burger is very tasty! Smaller portions and kind of pricey, but the Hatch burger is amazing! Reminds me of my favorite burger anywhere (Amarillo burger at Casino El Camino in Austin).

I usually go to Palermo's before Tiki Ti. Really good Italian food. One of my favorites around! Just around the corner.

Have fun at Tiki Ti! Always a great time! Drink slowly so that you can sample as many drinks as possible. They are strong but all of them are amazing.

John-O knows his stuff, and I agree with his reccomendations. Just thought I would give my 2 cents

One of the fascinating Angelenos featured in L.A. Weekly's People 2014 issue. Check out our entire People 2014 issue.

Tiki is hot. Hot enough that new tiki bars are opening everywhere from St. Louis to Regensburg, Germany. Hot enough that the cocktail menus at Hollywood's most buzzed-about bars are just as likely to have flaming zombies as variations on the Negroni. Hot enough that tiki history has become one of the most popular seminar topics at cocktail conventions.

Tell this to Mike Buhen, though, and the owner (with his sons) of L.A.'s iconic Tiki Ti seems a little surprised. "I'm glad to hear that," he says, his trademark loud tropical shirt contrasting with his calm demeanor. You get the feeling that tiki's newfound trendiness will do nothing to change America's most beloved, if not best-known, tiki bar. Not much ever changes at the Ti.

Opened in 1961 near the end of the last great tiki era, the tiny bar on Sunset Boulevard has survived the decline of tiki, the rise of disco, and the dark ages of cocktails, which persisted from the 1960s to the late '90s. It survived the rise of mixology, and the snobbery that came with it. It even survived California's cigarette ban - Tiki Ti is one of the last bars in the state where you can still light up indoors.

All these things can be attributed to one basic fact: Tiki Ti is a family affair. Because Buhen and his sons are the bar's only employees, the law that seeks to protect workers from secondhand smoke does not apply. And because this bar has been the passion and livelihood of three generations of Buhens, its customers are devoted. "We have people who have been coming here for over 50 years," Buhen says.

Buhen's late father, Ray, had a hand in practically every important tiki bar in Los Angeles, beginning with the original, Don the Beachcomber, where he was a bartender at the time of its 1934 opening. "My dad was from the Philippines," Buhen says. "He came when he was 18. He was working at the Beverly Hills Hotel and they decided to send him to bartending school. I guess that's how this all started." Ray Buhen later worked at many of his era's best bars, including Trader Vic's and the Seven Seas. In 1950 he was an opening bartender at the Dresden.

Eleven years later, he opened Tiki Ti. "My dad could have been a contractor," Buhen says. "He built this all himself."

Buhen was 18 at the time - too young to enter the bar. He bided his time with a job at Hertz but joined the family business at 21, and he's been there ever since. Any night the Ti is open, you can find Buhen perched on a stool beside the door, smoking a cigar, checking IDs and bantering with the regulars. Listen closely, and you'll hear about the time Nic Cage got smashed on shots. On Wednesday nights at 9, one of the Buhen boys rings a ship's bell and Buhen toasts Ray's picture on the wall.

This year, Buhen and his wife are celebrating their 40th wedding anniversary. As for the future of the bar, Buhen shrugs. "That's up to my boys," he says, gesturing toward sons Mike Jr., 40, and Mark, 30, behind the bar. "There have been people coming in here wanting to start a Tiki Two or Tiki Three. That's all up to them. My dad tended bar here well into his 80s. Sometimes I think I'll retire. But some people retire and then they just have nothing to do."